Hearkening back to the long ago days of yore (you know, ten years ago)
the Autumn season* was always gaming's busiest time. It was not only
when the industry's blockbuster games were released, but also when a
flood of smaller titles came out too. It was all in aim of getting
games out onto the store shelves in time for Christmas, of course. But
that doesn't seem to be happening this year (and, honestly, neither
the past few years either).

Maybe it's just that I'm not as in tune with new releases anymore.
"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II" is coming out soon (October 28, if
you're interested), but do I care? Not really. (And does a remake
really count anyway as a big-name release anyway?) But these days I'm
content to wait the months - or years - until a game drops in price
where it seems worth the purchase; I've less interest in making
day-one purchases. So maybe it's just me.

Still, it does seem that there's less hype about new games recently.
This used to be the time of year when everybody was talking about the
BIG GAMES that were coming out, but now... it all seems curiously
muted. Or, if not quiet, then no louder than any other part of the
year.

It could be that the industry has changed. Brick-n-mortar sales of
video games are of decreasing importance; more and more people are
buying (or renting**) their games through digital*** downloads. Video
games are also becoming less a strange luxury you only get a few times
a year than something that's an ordinary part of life; no longer
champagne, but coffee. And smaller developers - almost none of whom
ever had a chance of getting boxed versions of their games onto retail
store shelves anyway - have less interest in waiting for a particular
season to make a sale. So staggering out games throughout the year -
rather than waiting until the holiday season - has become more the
norm.

(that's good news for the people making the games, anyway. The
end-of-year rush to get games out for Christmas was always a major
cause of that development crunch that destroyed people's health and relationships).

Still, there's a part of me that misses the rush of all those
anticipated games coming out all at once, the anxious FOMO knowing you
can only afford one or three of the big-name games, and what if you
pick the lemon of the bunch? It added to the stress - and joy - of the
season, making the darkening days less depressing, knowing you'd have
a bunch of new games to keep you entertained.

Or maybe, like I said, it's just me. Maybe nothing has changed and it
is still that same rushed and overhyped season of releases. I honestly
can't tell. It just seems different than it used to.





================
* at least in the right-side-up part of the world. Those weirdo
Southerners for some reason think it all happens during the Spring
season. I think it's all the blood rushing to their heads from being
upside down all the time.
** although most digital purchases are arguably still 'rentals' since
ownership or control of the games remains outside the purchaser's
control
*** wait... are there analog downloads?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Am 19.10.22 um 18:21 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson:

Hearkening back to the long ago days of yore (you know, ten years ago)
the Autumn season* was always gaming's busiest time.

Well the games are in my backlog
Probably yours too

But seriously yes things have slowed down a little bit.
We all know the reasons which are plentyful.
But I can live with that. I have so many games in my backlog that I
probably will finish them when I have retired.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Werner P. <werpu@gmx.at> wrote:

Am 19.10.22 um 18:21 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson:

Hearkening back to the long ago days of yore (you know, ten years ago)
the Autumn season* was always gaming's busiest time.

Well the games are in my backlog
Probably yours too

But seriously yes things have slowed down a little bit.
We all know the reasons which are plentyful.
But I can live with that. I have so many games in my backlog that I
probably will finish them when I have retired.

Ditto.
--
"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." --Psalm 37:4. A quiet hot (summer is back again) allergy Tuesday after a slammy and peey Monday.
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Wed, 19 Oct 2022 20:15:22 +0000, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, Ant
wrote:

Werner P. <werpu@gmx.at> wrote:

Am 19.10.22 um 18:21 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson:

Hearkening back to the long ago days of yore (you know, ten years ago)
the Autumn season* was always gaming's busiest time.

Well the games are in my backlog
Probably yours too

But seriously yes things have slowed down a little bit.
We all know the reasons which are plentyful.
But I can live with that. I have so many games in my backlog that I
probably will finish them when I have retired.

Ditto.

As long as Windows retains backward compatibility, I have enough to play
until I'm dead.

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Am 20.10.22 um 05:25 schrieb Zaghadka:

On Wed, 19 Oct 2022 20:15:22 +0000, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, Ant wrote:

Ditto.

As long as Windows retains backward compatibility, I have enough to play until I'm dead.

If not Linux is getting better every day in this regard, about almost
all games I have on my steam list now play on the deck without any issues. There have been made huge jumps in the recent months regarding
compatibility.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Thu, 20 Oct 2022 06:21:42 +0200, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Werner P. wrote:

Am 20.10.22 um 05:25 schrieb Zaghadka:

On Wed, 19 Oct 2022 20:15:22 +0000, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, Ant
wrote:

Ditto.

As long as Windows retains backward compatibility, I have enough to play
until I'm dead.

If not Linux is getting better every day in this regard, about almost
all games I have on my steam list now play on the deck without any issues. >There have been made huge jumps in the recent months regarding
compatibility.

Is it throught the Wine layer, or something else?

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 19/10/2022 17:21, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Still, it does seem that there's less hype about new games recently.
This used to be the time of year when everybody was talking about the
BIG GAMES that were coming out, but now... it all seems curiously
muted. Or, if not quiet, then no louder than any other part of the
year.

For whatever reason I've never really been into the whole what's the
next big think to released and that's even true of the blockbuster
titles. If I hear about them it's just passively from something I my see
on YouTube or more likely Steam.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Wed, 19 Oct 2022 22:25:12 -0500, Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com>
wrote:

As long as Windows retains backward compatibility, I have enough to play >until I'm dead.

Fortunately, even if Microsoft does start breaking its coveted
backwards compatibility, you can still keep playing so long as you
hang on to an older computer. Just because Microsoft says Windows 98
is passe doesn't mean you have to stop using it (I'd be careful about
hooking it up to the Internet, but few older games require that sort
of connectivity).

And if not that, Linux (or SteamDeck) support is greatly improved. And
if not that, emulation.

(Although getting those games installed may be a problem as time goes
on, since they are so reliant on Steam. This isn't so much an issue
with Win9x games but - should Microsoft move to an incompatible model
in future operating system revisions - Valve is likely to drop support
for Win32s. I wanted to play some XP-era games on proper XP-era
hardware, and the lack of support for XP meant my entire Steam catalog
was unavailable to that machine. I can imagine that happening more and
more in the future)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Thu, 20 Oct 2022 00:01:07 -0500, Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com>
wrote:

On Thu, 20 Oct 2022 06:21:42 +0200, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Werner P. wrote:

Am 20.10.22 um 05:25 schrieb Zaghadka:

On Wed, 19 Oct 2022 20:15:22 +0000, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, Ant >>> wrote:

Ditto.

As long as Windows retains backward compatibility, I have enough to play >>> until I'm dead.

If not Linux is getting better every day in this regard, about almost
all games I have on my steam list now play on the deck without any issues. >>There have been made huge jumps in the recent months regarding >>compatibility.

Is it throught the Wine layer, or something else?

More likely the Proton compatibility layer, which includes Wine as a
subset. The Wine API was satisfactory for desktop-layer stuff, but
struggled with games. Proton has greatly improved Direct3D-to-Vulkan translations, which speeds up games incredibly.

I believe that SteamDeck uses Proton.

It's still not perfect but most games are now at least playable. You
may still see an odd bug, but often you won't be able to tell if
that's a problem with the game or with the translation API. There's
also some translation overhead but - except in the case of the most resource-intensive games - not so much that you'd notice (but this
says more about how fast our multi-core, multi-gigahertz behemoth CPUs
run than about the API itself ;-)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Waiting for the 31st to jump out and scare you.

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)